TRANSPORTATION, LANDSCAPE, AND CULTURE IN NORTHWESTERN NORTH AMERICA

During the last few hundred years within northwestern North America, changes in travel routes and transportation modes brought alterations to the territory, both in landscape and culture. It continues to do so today. Canoe and foot travel dominated the travel methods before the 1700s, when people primarily followed waterways. During the 1700s, the horse, which gradually made its way north from Mexico via Spain, gained popularity in several areas. Horses still needed water, but they could travel overland and reach farther destinations. This introduced some cultural interactions and abandoned others. It also brought outside cultures into the area, particularly starting in the 1800s. These cultures built roads and mildly altered the landscape while doing so. When outside cultures settled, they brought mining, political boundaries, and other travel modes to the region. These changes in land use and geopolitics caused more road development, much of which involved river alteration, landmass movement and removal, and significantly different routes, altering both social interaction and landscape.

Transportation continues to impact landscapes and lifestyles. Federal, state, and sometimes, local governments regulate these effects. However, only certain conditions instigate these regulations. In addition, landscape and cultural frameworks, by nature, are dynamic themselves, so regulation compliance is complicated.